Faculty Spotlight: Summer 2021
The creative and scholarly contributions of the UCLA Arts community mine the complexities of the human condition, ask essential questions of our time, and expand the potential of creativity. Read more for a list of recent accolades and current and upcoming virtual and in-person exhibitions, performances, lectures, and events.
Kyle Abraham, who stepped down as professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance on June 30, recently premiered a new dance film on All Arts, created in collaboration with his company, A.I.M, and filmmaker Dehanza Rogers. This series of poetic vignettes strips down Abraham’s idiosyncratic and emotionally-driven movement to show that deep grief and profound love often live in the same quiet moment. This film is a part of All Arts' Past, Present, Future Dance Film Festival, which can be viewed on the ALL ARTS app and website.
Abraham recently participated in The Wall Street Journal’s Future Of Everything Festival, a series that brings together revolutionary minds to explore the ideas forming what comes next. The event included an interview with Kyle Abraham followed by a class with dancer Tamisha A. Guy.
Abraham also recently completed a duet for the Royal Ballet, which premiered at the Royal Opera House May 26 – 30, alongside works by Christopher Wheeldon and Crystal Pite in a performance titled “21st Century Choreographers.”
Refik Anadol, Fort Worth Pioneer Tower artwork proposal. Courtesy of Refik Anadol Studio.
Refik Anadol, a visiting researcher and lecturer in the Department of Design Media Arts, as well as an alumnus of the department, collaborated with the cognac company Hennessy to create an immersive artwork for the 2021 V.S.O.P Privilège Limited Edition. Anadol visited Hennessy’s tasting committee in Cognac, France with electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors to measure their brainwaves as each participating member tasted a selection of eaux-de-vie. He then combined the collected neuroscientific data with machine intelligence to create an immersive audio-visual installation, Sense of Heritage, which will be showcased in select locations worldwide, and a sharable digital platform accessed via a QR code on the bottle.
Anadol was also commissioned by the city of Fort Worth, Texas, to present a new public artwork that will be projected on the sides of the 204-foot tall historic Pioneer Tower in Fort Worth’s Cultural District on August 20–21, 2021. The event will be free and open to the public.
Anadol will also appear at Abu Dhabi's first creativity festival from Oct. 14-16. The event, Semi Permanent Middle East 2021, will bring together global talents from across the fashion, design, retail, branding and technology industries.
Kutan Ayata, vice chair and associate professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, is a founding partner of Young & Ayata, which is presenting the new work Sonic Hut: Collector in the virtual exhibition “One Object at a Time," presented by the A+D Museum.
Judy Baca, professor emeritus in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, created "The Great Wall of Los Angeles," a half-mile long mural in the Tujunga Flood Control Channel of the San Fernando Valley that depicts overlooked Indigenous, immigrant and minority histories in California, their contributions and their struggles to overcome obstacles. Baca painted the mural with more than 400 youth, over 40 artists, scholars and hundreds of community members beginning in 1974 and completing it in 1983. Now, thanks to a $5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project, Baca plans to expand the wall to a full mile in length, bringing the content of the mural up to the present day and beyond.
The Great Wall of Los Angeles Monument is recognized as one of the country's largest monuments to interracial harmony. In addition to having been selected as part the National Monuments Project, the Department of Interior designated the wall a national historic site in 2017. In 2021, Lucas Museum acquired Professor Baca’s archive documenting the creation of this epic work. Read more in this Hyperallergic article.
Dana Cuff, professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, is also the founding director of cityLAB, a think tank that explores design innovations in the emerging metropolis. cityLAB, in collaboration with Heart of Los Angeles Youth, Inc., was awarded a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities grant in the spring for their project "Reflections in Lafayette Park: Reimagining an Urban Oasis." Cuff is the advisor on the project. Gustavo Leclerc, associate director of cityLAB, is one of the principal investigators. The project seeks to complicate the narrative of urban degradation and violence often associated with Westlake through three humanities-themed temporary exhibitions and concomitant programs engaging scholars, artists, community stakeholders, youth, and families, and inviting them to participate in the exploration and celebration of the historical continuum of their neighborhood’s diverse cultures, rich heritage, and unique landscape.
A rendering of 9000 Wilshire, Skanska's new office building in Beverly Hills, designed by Neil Denari in collaboration with HLW.
Neil Denari, professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, in collaboration with HLW, has designed Skanska's new three-story office building in Beverly Hills. Located at 9000 Wilshire, the 46,000-square-foot building will feature three stories of office space plus an indoor/outdoor “living room” on a fourth floor.
Johanna Drucker, a joint professor with the Department of Design Media Arts and the Department of Information Studies, has received a prestigious award from AIGA, the American Institute of Graphic Arts: the 2021 Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary Recipients. Read more about the prize here.
Dan Froot, professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and outgoing chair of the department, received a Council on Research’s Research Enhancement Grant, a UCLA Chancellor’s Arts Initiative Grant and a City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Project Grant for his current project, Arms Around America, a community-based performance project based on the oral histories of families whose lives have been shaped by guns.
Georgina Huljich, associate professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, published the book Mute Icons & Other Dichotomies on the Real in Architecture (Actar Publishers) together with Marcelo Spina, co-founder of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S.
Interrogating historical, contemporary, and, more importantly, speculative images, “Mute Icons & Other Dichotomies of the Real in Architecture" aims to carve out a niche in contemporary culture and history by suggesting that far from being a crowd-pleaser, architecture can persist within society as a constructive cultural and social irritant. Part history, part theory, and part monographic atlas, the book includes contributions by Huljich, Spina, Brett Steele (dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture), Guillermo Martinez, Ciro Najle, and Constance Vale.
A screenshot of the Ibañez Kim web-based drawing app Kobugi (鰲) in the virtual exhibition “One Object at a Time," presented by the A+D Museum.
Mariana Ibañez, chair and associate professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, is co-founder and principal of the award-winning office Ibañez Kim, which is presenting the new work Kobugi (鰲) in the virtual exhibition “One Object at a Time," presented by the A+D Museum.
Vishal Jugdeo, assistant professor in the Department of Art, has been selected as a 2021-22 UCLA Society of Hellman Fellow. The program helps promising assistant professors with their research and creative endeavors, in hopes of promoting career advancement and enhancing their progress toward tenure.
Kevin Kane, director of the Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) program, delivered the 2021 commencement address at the East LA Performing Arts Magnet High School on June 12. Kevin says the honor of being invited to give the address is “reflective of VAPAE’s deep and meaningful engagement with our school partners, our city’s premiere arts-focused K-12 schools and other community arts organizations." You can view his address here.
Gelare Khoshgozaran, a lecturer in the Department of Design Media Arts, recently joined MARCH, a journal of art and strategy, as an editor. The announcement is posted here.
Candice Lin, assistant professor in the Department of Art, is among the Berlin Prize recipients for 2021-22. The Berlin Prize is awarded annually to scholars, writers, composers, and artists from the United States who represent the highest standards of excellence in their fields.
Greg Lynn, professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, and co-founder and chief creative officer of the Boston-based intelligent lightweight mobility company Piaggio Fast Forward, is also founder and owner of Greg Lynn FORM, which is presenting the new work Ark of the World in the virtual exhibition “One Object at a Time," presented by the A+D Museum.
Lauren Lee McCarthy, associate professor in the Department of Design Media Arts, and lecturer Claire Kearney-Volpe have received the Teach Access Curriculum Development Grant for their fall 2021 course about design, disability and the web. The $5,000 grant will be used to develop modules, presentations, exercises and curriculum enhancements that introduce the fundamental concepts and skills of accessible design and development.
Rebeca Méndez, chair and professor in the Department of Design Media Arts, participated in a virtual panel discussion on June 25 called “The Mothers of Design,” sponsored by Creative Mornings and viewable now. The panel considered how women can lead the future of design, even as 61% of designers are women, but only 29% of creative director positions are held by women. Méndez spoke alongside Paula Scher and Gail Anderson, and Debbie Millman moderated the discussion.
Christian Moeller, Underpass Hollywood Boulevard / New Hampshire Avenue.
Christian Moeller, professor in the Department of Design Media Arts, unveiled his new installation DOTS at The Henry, a student housing project in Tampa's Downtown Arts District. More details here.
Moeller has also initiated a personal project called “Forgotten Places,” a monthly email newsletter. Here’s his description:
Ever since I arrived in Los Angeles in 2001, I have been fascinated by its physical manifestations of the obsolete, the infrastructural remains that the city has simply forgotten. Over the course of the pandemic, that interest has developed into an ongoing personal project. With the help of my friend Alan Mullen, a former location scout, I have been identifying strange and remarkable locations around Los Angeles County, collecting images of these sites either via Google Street View screen capture or drive-by iPhone photography. These images, paired with brief texts by the writer Kyra Lunenfeld, are canvases for color drawings inspired by the artifacts of urban neglect. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your insights, as well as suggestions for more potential sites, which would be much appreciated as this project continues. You can find older posts of "Forgotten Places" here.
Catherine Opie, the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Endowed Chair in Art and incoming chair of the Department of Art, has published a monograph, Catherine Opie (Phaidon), a compelling visual narrative of Opie's work since the early 1980s, pairing images across bodies of work to form a full picture of her artistic vision. With more than 300 beautiful illustrations and made in close collaboration with Opie, the book marks a turning point in the consideration of Opie's work to date. She’ll be doing a book signing at her own studio on July 31.
Elena Phipps, a lecturer in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, contributed to a major publication on art and materiality in South America from the 16th to 19th centuries. Her essay “Nuance, Brilliance and Sheen in Andean Textile Traditions” appears in Materia Americana: The body of Spanish American images (16th to mid-19th centuries), edited by Gabriela Siracusano and Agustina Rodríguez Romero, and published by EDUNTREF with the support of the Getty Foundation.
Phipps also recently participated in a discussion on the Andean predilection for textiles that reflect light. The conversation with the Textile Museum Journal’s guest editor Mary Dusenbury, hosted by George Washington University, can be viewed here. Phipps also gave a talk about cochineal red dye for the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden on June 15.
She will also give a talk on the use of silver threads in Andean colonial textiles for the conference “The Matter of Silver: Substance, Surface, Shimmer, Trauma,” sponsored by the University of York and the British Academy, on July 27. More information here.
Lionel Popkin, Six Positions on Uncertainty, 2020. Video still. Courtesy of the artist.
Lionel Popkin, a professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and the new associate dean of academic affairs, received a grant from the National Performance Network’s Creation Fund for “Orientation Event,” a durational performance unpacking the history of interculturalism within the nearly 30-year archive of his dance-making, also commissioned by REDCAT in LA and Dance Place in DC.
He is a member of the collective SAEDA, which recently received funding from the Mellon Foundation. SAEDA fosters a space for diasporic dance artists of South Asian descent to discuss artistic processes and disrupt representations of South Asian bodies. SAEDA also aims to create and sustain a network of peer-to-peer artist-led communication that promotes a system built on artistic growth and community health.
Popkin has one piece in The Museum of Wild and Newfangled Art's 2021 biennial, on view through September 22. Popkin also has two pieces in the group exhibition “Recovery Justice: Being Well” at the 18th Street Arts Center (Airport Campus) through July 16, 2021. His piece “Six Position of Uncertainty” will be performed as part of the Center’s “LEFT/ RIGHT/ HERE: A Drive-through Outdoor Art Experience” on July 10 at 8:30 PM.
Still from Mihin Sutta, Mihin Jibon (The Women Weavers of Assam, 2019) by Aparna Sharma.
Aparna Sharma, professor in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, had two films win awards at the Tagore International Film Festival in Santiniketan, India. Mihin Sutta, Mihin Jibon (The Women Weavers of Assam, 2019) won the Critic’s Choice Award, and focuses on the craft, labor and the everyday lives of a group of women weavers in India’s northeastern state of Assam. A short film, Still Light, won the award for Outstanding Achievement in the short film category. Still Light is an experimental short composed of photographic stills that highlight how light influences perception of place, and is shot and edited on a mobile phone.
Kathleen Richards, art spaces director and exhibitions manager at Thoma Foundation Art Vault, looks at Jennifer Steinkamp’s animated projection, Blind Eye, 1 (detail, 2018), at Thoma Foundation Art Vault; photo Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican.
Jennifer Steinkamp, professor in the Department of Design Media Arts, has an animated projection, “Blind Eye, 1 (2018),” on view as part of “Networked Nature,” one of two exhibitions inaugurating the Thoma Foundation’s new digital art space, Art Vault, in Santa Fe.
HEADER IMAGE: Judith F. Baca, "Mrs. Laws of South Central, L.A. Fights Housing Discrimination" (c 1976), detail from the 1940s section of the Great Wall of Los Angeles (all images courtesy the SPARC Archives)
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